GSM Cell ID
A GSM Cell ID is a generally unique number used to identify each base transceiver station or sector of a BTS within a location area code if not within a GSM network.
In some cases the first or last digit of CID represents cells' Sector ID:
- value 0 is used for omnidirectional antenna,
- values 1, 2, 3 are used to identify sectors of trisector or bisector antennas.
A valid CID ranges from 0 to 65535 on GSM and CDMA networks and from 0 to 268,435,455 on UMTS and LTE networks.
Cell ID databases and services
A number of commercial and public Cell ID databases and services are available:| Name | Unique cells | Countries | Operators | Measurements | Free database download | Active project | Data license | Comment | - |
| Cellspotting.com | 0.1 million | 667 | no | - | |||||
| Combain Mobile – | >100 million | >240 | >1700 | >66 billion | no | yes | Supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS, LTE and Wi-Fi via API. | - | |
| – Unwired Labs | 157.89 million | 240 | 1712 | 25 billion | no | yes | Supports WiFi, GSM, CDMA, UMTS and LTE technologies via its API. | ||
| Mozilla Location Service | 28.2 million | 240 | 2.7 billion | yes | yes | Based on crowd-sourced data. Also WiFi database. Cooperating with OpenCelliD and Combain. | - | ||
| Mylnikov GEO | >34 million | 505 | 3500 | yes | yes | Contains data from radiocells.org, OpenCellID and MLS. | - | ||
| Navizon | 71 million | 239 | 1712 | 22 billion | no | yes | Based on crowd-sourced data. Also WiFi database. | - | |
| NetMeterProject.com | 0.2 million | 77 | 174 | 10 million | limited; private use only | no | Only a small portion of the database can be downloaded and for private use only: the measurements where the crowd users accepted the "Creative Commons Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Deutschland" license | - | |
| OpenCellID by Unwired Labs | 38.9 million | 222 | 753 | 2.1 billion | yes | yes | Based on crowd-sourced data; free API key required for database download; Service is now maintained by Unwired Labs. | - | |
| OpenSignal | 0.8 million | 825 | 5.2 billion | no | yes | - | - | ||
| radiocells.org | 0.7 million | 94 | 243 | yes | yes | Based on crowd-sourced data. | - | ||
| WiGLE | 6.2 million | no | yes | - | - | ||||
| no | yes | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| by Gyokov Solutions | - | - | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Google Location Services | - | - | |||||||
| Apple Location Services | - | - | |||||||
| Microsoft Location Services | - | - |